2000 School Magazine

original works

BLACK BOY

and gave one last sob of misery as she cast a look back at her precious home. She knew she would never see her shores again. Ruthless guards and seamen cursed at her to hurry her"little girlie feet"onto the ship. She ran to the frontmost part of the ship, and huddled her small body into a damp corner. The ship shuddered and creaked in the cold morning air, and she shivered. Once the ship was loaded, one chief guard bellowed out for the people on the dock to move back. The old ship moved slowly away from the dock as seamen hurriedly hauled the ropes and anchor in. Sarah buried her head in her shirt and made it wet with her tears. The rest of the men, women and children on board the ship were expressing the same emotions, and no-one said a word. When the ship was about half an hour away from the coasts of England, a Queen's man who was very highly ranked came to the crowd of huddled people, and stood tall and straight. Everyone hushed from their sobbing and awed eyes were drawn to the solemn and almost-frightening man in the royal red suit, and he started to speak loudly and clearly. "This ship, by order of her Majesty and the Council, has been sent to Botany Bay in New Holland, to find a new life, and for all you criminals to repair your sins and bad deeds by working for her Majesty. " Once he was finished with his formal speech, he went on to curse the crowd of people for their bad deeds. "The honourable people of England are disgusted by your greediness and stupidity. You all have sinned greatly - by murder or stealing - and you shall be punished. " His cold black eyes met Sarah's when he said "stealing!and she looked down hurriedly. "You have blackened the name of your country, Queen, and yourselves. Your name is no more. Now you are simply anonymous, you are a bastard's son or daughter, who has no rights or choice. You are nothing. " The crowd shuddered and wept again, and Sarah sobbed into her shirt. She was never, ever going to make this torture, and more than ever she willed her mother and father to be alive again, and that they had not caught a fatal disease and died when she was eight. She knew nothing could save her now, and her feeble bones would be reduced to nothing by even a month of the hard work, and she would die. She gave one last prayer to the heavens as she lay huddled in the corner of the ship, and slept without a sound, dreaming about living in the high-class society of England, and never having a worry in the world. Weeks passed by of the dreary and torturous life on board the ship, and in early May the first sign of New Holland appeared on the horizon. The half-insane and starved prisoners cried out in joy and happiness when the lines of brown and green were first seen by the lookout man in the crows nest. It was nearly a week before the lush green mountains became large and clearly seen. By that time, Sarah was on the verge of insanity and starvation. Many around her were the same, and one shaking and terrified woman dared to run tearfully up to the Queen's man, and begged him for the ship to stop. She was beaten and locked up in a solitary cabin. Sarah had decided then that she was going to jump off the ship and swim the rest of the way to shore, to begin a life of her own. She knew it was as insane and stupid as her idea to steal the loaf of bread, but dying in peace on land or being eaten by sharks in the water would be better than dying amongst other sick people from a mysterious disease in the new land, or starving to death. She knew she was going to jump off the ship when lunchtime hadjust begun on the day before they would be going near the shore and dropping the anchor. The guards were out the front with the crowd, eating bread for lunch, and the back of the ship where you were to go to the toilet into the water or to vomit off, was deserted. Sarah timidly asked a guard if she could go to the toilet. She ran to the back of the ship, and stared into the inurky waters below. What if there were monstrous sharks? What if the water was so cold that she froze to death? What if-? She jumped, and crashed into the warm waters below. She heard shouts from the ship, and hurriedly swam faster and faster away from the deadly prison. Luckily she had befriended a boy from the streets back in England and he had taught her how to swim.

Delicious smells wafted up from large iron ovens: the smells of warm crusts, soft bread and a meal for the first time in nearly two weeks. Sarah imagined this as she gazed longingly at the tempting loaf of bread in front of her. She was standing outside a baker's stall in the daily markets, and for the first time in her eleven years, she wanted to take the bread and run away. The lucky silver coins that had once filled her pockets were gone, and she was reduced to eating out of garbage trays in the secluded alleyways. Now the longing for a tasty loaf of bread was overwhelming. She knew that the cruel market-owners would never give a starving young girl a loaf of luxurious bread, so the idea dawned on her that she should take it and use her fast legs to run away with her prize. She also knew the consequences of being caught stealing:instant transportation by ship to Botany Bay on the coasts of the mysterious New Holland, where she would spend the rest of her days working for the Queen's men back home in her precious England, and Sarah knew that she would probably die on heriourney to New Holland, or starve as soon as she arrived in the new land. The bread smells wafted through her small nose again, and her eager hand reached out before she had time to think of what she was doing, and she whirled around and ran. She heard the furious cries of the market-owner, and for a second she turned to see the fat man waddling helplessly towards her. The world collapsed beneath her as she tripped on a manhole ... and the ground came crashing towards her as she fell with a cry of pain and defeat. The triumphant market-owner swung her up by her ear, and snarled in her miserable face. "Street vermin ... yer coinin' with me!" Around fifty helpless children, men and women were shoved onto a massive vessel a early one morning in March, on a gloomy ~ dockside in the southern coasts of England that faced east:the direction of New co C o ^

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e Holland. Sarah was unloaded out of a cart ^ and ordered up the ramp onto the ship, N

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